Video: EDA eyes new opportunities for growthNews & Analysis 7/31/2009 Post a commentOpportunities for EDA to generate more revenue from outside the semiconductor industry frequently surfaced in discussion at this year's Design Automation Conference, with executives suggesting that EDA could play in markets including medical devices, military/aerospace, automotive and clean energy technology.

Signaling rate versus cable length: the CAN-bus timing trade-offDesign How-To 7/31/2009 1 commentThe CAN standard alludes to the trade-off between total bus distance and maximum signaling rate. This article presents specific examples that illustrate why the loop-time (round-trip delay) is an essential measure of network performance. Also included is look at component selection, slew rate control, and timing budget analysis.

Choosing the right battery technologyDesign How-To 7/31/2009 Post a commentBattery performance, as it relates to runtime and capacity, has become a key market differentiator for consumer electronics. A new line of batteries with technologies like lithium ion and lithium-ion phosphate that offer better performance make the choice of what battery to use harder.

AMD, HP propose extensions for PCI Express 3.0News & Analysis 7/31/2009 Post a commentResearchers from Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett-Packard have written two extensions to the PCI Express 3.0 specification which aims to enable lower cost chips that could support multiple protocols and reduce processor overhead.

Wolfson launches advanced PMIC lineProduct News 7/31/2009 Post a commentWolfson Microelectronics' latest power management chips are the first to employ its BuckWise regulator technology, helping to cut support components and facilitate advanced multitasking.

NXP Class-D car audio amplifier offer high efficiencyProduct News 7/31/2009 Post a commentNXP has introduced a family of dual channel Class-D amplifiers that according to the vendor's promises deliver high sound quality and energy efficiency. The NXP TDF8599 Class-D amplifier family operates with maximum output power from 70 to 130 watts (250 watts mono), significantly reducing power dissipation in the vehicle head-unit when compared to traditional Class-AB amplifiers and ensuring more efficient heat management.

Wolfson Q2 sales up 32% sequentiallyNews & Analysis 7/31/2009 Post a commentWolfson Microelectronics plc (Edinburgh, Scotland), a supplier of mixed-signal circuits for consumer electronics, made an operating loss of $2.4 million on second quarter revenue that reached $33.2 million, a rise of 32 percent sequentially but down 38 percent from Q2 2008.

Silicon Valley, Wall Street meet at interconnect eventNews & Analysis 7/30/2009 Post a commentThe Hot Interconnects conference will move from its longstanding home on the Stanford campus to Lower Manhattan next month as organizers try to bring together Silicon Valley technologists and bleeding edge systems users on Wall Street, in part to debate the competition between 10 Gbit Ethernet and Infiniband.

Asyst sells assets to three companiesNews & Analysis 7/30/2009 Post a commentEnding perhaps the last chapter in a painful saga, Asyst Technologies Inc. has agreed to sell its entire assets to three companies: Crossing Automation Inc., Murata Machinery Ltd. and the Peer Group.

New E85 station opening in ArizonaProduct News 7/30/2009 Post a commentThe Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) announces the opening of the first E85 station in Coolidge, Arizona. E85 is a blend of 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline, designed for flex-fuel vehicles.

Kappos sketches out plans for patent officeNews & Analysis 7/30/2009 1 commentDavid J. Kappos, nominated by President Barack Obama to head the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, pledged to "refashion the patent examination process" and improve funding for the patent office in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

FIBEX XML format and AUTOSAR developmentDesign How-To 7/30/2009 3 commentsEngineers planning to start Autosar projects for the first time can revert on existing tool chains, at least in part: The Fibex protocol is very similarly structured, and in many cases existing Fibex tools can be adapted to Autosar.

DAC attendance spots recessionary timesNews & Analysis 7/30/2009 Post a commentPreliminary attendace figures at this year's Design Automation Conference show an increase in total conference and exhibit attendance by 12 percent over last year's DAC held in Anaheim, Calif. and by three percent over the 2007 San Diego event.

GlobalFoundries could be the elusive Eurofoundry, and moreNews & Analysis 7/30/2009 1 commentIf Infineon could be persuaded to follow ST and switch outsourced IC manufacturing to GlobalFoundries in Dresden, we would some of the way along the path to creating a Eurofoundry that would keep advanced digital CMOS manufacturing in Europe, albeit with the help of Abu-Dhabian petrodollars.

ST sees positive backlog indicators for Q4News & Analysis 7/30/2009 Post a commentIn a commentary of financial results for the first half of fiscal year 2009, European chipmaker STMicroelectronics NV (Geneva, Switzerland) expressed optimism as it expects demand to recover in the second half of 2009.

Nvidia chief scientist to EDA: Give us power toolsNews & Analysis 7/30/2009 Post a commentNvidia's chief scientist told the EDA community that chip designers need new tools to usher in a new era of computing, moving to "throughput computing" from an era of "denial architecture" that has seen the semiconductor industry squeeze more performance out of single-thread processors thanks to software.